Wildcat girls’ soccer starts out 0-2

Published 8:31 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

SNOQUALMIE – The Mount Si Wildcats girls’ soccer team opened the 2004 season on a down note last Tuesday at its temporary home field at the Snoqualmie Community Park in the Snoqualmie Ridge neighborhood.

Sophomore forward Amanda Johnson scored both goals for Cedarcrest, as the Red Wolves beat the Wildcats 2-0 in a nonleague matchup between the former Kingco rivals. Cedarcrest, coming off a strong season in which they advanced deep in the state tournament, was playing its first girls’ soccer game as members of the new Cascade Conference.

The key, according to both coaches, was conditioning.

“Like I was telling the players, fitness really matters, and on a field this size, we know that you can let the ball do the work,” said the Red Wolves’ coach Robert Johnson. “That was the difference. We were able to get forward because we made some smart runs with the ball.”

As for the point of view of the Wildcats, coach Darren Brown vowed change was in store.

“Our conditioning has to be top notch because on a field like this, the girls are going to not only run farther, but run longer and harder, so our conditioning level needs to step up, and I think what I saw tonight was a lot of girls were sucking wind and after 10 minutes. That can’t happen, so I need to work on that with them,”

The Ridge field is 20 yards wider than the old field at Mount Si.

The first half was dominated mostly by the Red Wolves, as Cedarcrest got a number of good opportunities, mostly created by breakdowns defensively by the Wildcats. The Red Wolves came close right at the end of the half, when a penalty kick attempt just missed wide to the left of Mount Si goalkeeper Jessica Blessard.

The second half saw some life for the Wildcats, but Cedarcrest ended up dominating much of the second half as well.

Early in the half, the Red Wolves got another penalty kick attempt and Amanda Johnson made no mistake this time, firing a low shot into the back of the net to give Cedarcrest the lead. Amanda Johnson capped it off minutes later when she scored on a breakaway.

“It was great to be able to like score and stuff like that, it was awesome. But it was like our whole team just had that heart and stuff, and it was amazing. The [penalty kick], I didn’t think that we were going to get another one … I just slotted it, that’s all I can say,” said Amanda.

Overall, Brown was disappointed.

“It was frustrating. I don’t think we gave 100 percent and we didn’t do the things that we’ve been training to do, and that is work hard, be there on our first touch, and most of all support one another,” he said.

The result, he added, was a squad that played like individuals and not as a team.

As for the new league, and the preseason predictions of great things for the Red Wolves, Amanda is a bit nervous.

“I really do hope that we win the Cascade League because it’s going to be a little bit different, because I’m not exactly sure what to expect in this new league,” said Amanda.

Last Thursday, Mount Si looked for redemption against Kingco 4A power Redmond, but all the team got was another loss, this time a bit of a heartbreaker. The Mustangs scored the game’s lone goal late in regulation and took home the 1-0 victory at Redmond High School.

Brown thinks his team is ready for battle in the Kingco 3A.

“We are three weeks ahead of last season and that may play a huge factor as we were a .500 team in the first half last season and the best team in Kingco in the second half. It took three to four weeks for us last season to get our legs at 100 percent. I feel we are there now,” Brown said.

Tuesday, the Wildcats hosted Bellevue, and this Saturday Mount Si travels to Sammamish to play the Totems for the first time since last season’s emotional Kingco 3A playoff tiebreaker game. Game time is 7:30 p.m.